“I’ve got a five-year-old son and I also have a one-and-a-half-year-old, so when I started this album was the same time when my second son was born and it’s taken the same amount of time for him to grow as it has for me to finish the record. That’s how I see it. It’s been like a project and it’s been a very exhausting one. I put all my eggs in one basket and I’ve given this my all, invested every dollar and spare minute into making it come to life… I was thinking the other day, ‘I’ve made this album – so I can die now and I’d be happy’.”
Put simply, this is “the word of Eloquor”, according to Pelsoczy. Spanning an enormous 18 tracks and split into three parts, each third of the album employs the talents of three of the best producers in Australian hip hop, including Simplex of Terrafirma, Pokerbeats and Jase of Beatheadz (as well as long-time Eloquor collaborator 76). But it wasn’t just any old beat that Pelsoczy required of each – the tunes and approach had to match a specific model of sound.
“The album is extremely spiritual, it’s based on Eastern philosophy,” the MC explains. “It’s broken up into three parts – based on the Hindu Tridev – and inspired by the three Hindu gods. The first part of the album is about ‘creation’, which is the god Brahma, the second is about ‘preservation’, which is Vishnu, and the third is about ‘destruction’, which is Shiva. At the start of every part there is a foreword from an old man who is a Hindu mystic.
“Part one is about the creation of the universe and how everything is light expressing itself, like subatomic particles, though with a spiritual twist. We all have access to true potential; we’re all vibrating light and have the pure potential to become anything we want. Part two is about preservation and it looks at life in the ‘right now’. There is even a track about the invasion of Australia by the British Empire. The final part is about destruction which looks at how we place too much trust into technology and how it’s going to turn around and bite us on the ass one day.”
But Pelsoczy also touches on a subject that is very close to his heart and is, perhaps, one of his strongest passions – helping disadvantaged youth. Not only does he rap about the ever-growing issue but he’s actually doing something about it too.
“I’m also a high school teacher at a community school, so issues about underprivileged youth and people who have been mistreated or are at risk are subjects that I understand. If we don’t look after the world it’s not going to end up well. I’ve been very spiritual since I was a young kid myself – nobody ever forced it on me, so I guess it must have been something from a past life! I went to India when I was 22 for about three month, just backpacking, and I did many different types of meditations and Reikis and spiritual practices over there. I stopped eating meat as well. Spirituality is extremely important to me.”
Which is why it was just as vital for the guest producers on Pelsoczy’s album to understand this as well. Not necessarily agree, as the MC insists, but just understand the vision at least…
“I gave each of the producers a poster of the god that represented each of the parts of the album that they would be covering. The idea was so that, while they’re making the beats and I’m writing the album at the same time, we’re both looking at the same poster and we’re both working with an identical model, the base of it. For example, Simplex, who did the first part, I told him, ‘You are Brahma, when you make these beats think of the process of creation, the universe beginning’, and that’s how I approach the other producers. Jase wasn’t able to do the whole thing he was supposed to originally and 76 also stepped in on about 11 of the tracks on this album overall. I had to have him on this album no matter what, he’s been with me for about six years now, he’s a big part of this.”
Pelsoczy assures he will never be able to recreate neither the album or nor the experience which has been From The Oceans Of Karana, but insists that doesn’t mean he’s done with albums per se – especially now that he’s found what works for him.
“When I look back I realise that the first proper song I made was about nine years ago, a track called Trippin,” he recalls. “That particular song was actually exactly what I’m doing now! The whole spiritual thing and questioning where our place is in the world. People weren’t feeling it at the time, though, and I wasn’t getting much love or respect for it. I went on a journey after that song and tried the more grime-y, raw, angry and aggressive sort of stuff – and now I’ve done a complete 360 and gone back to what I’m all about. ‘Eloquor’ means ‘to express oneself’, ‘to shout out’, so it made sense for me to want to go back to the true reason why I wanted to be an artist in the first place.”
BY PEPPER SCOTT
